The heart of UK fashion and leading fashion trade show, Moda, is delighted to announce its continued collaboration with De Montfort University Footwear Design BA (Hons) course and the shortlisted entries to its History in the Making Footwear Design Competition.

This exciting initiative showcases incredible young talent and the future of footwear design. In response to the quality of entries, the judges - including Lisa Govier, Director of Moda Footwear and Sam Hunt, Director of Hunted Brands - chose eight instead of six shortlisted entries. All eight will showcase their work in the prestigious Footwear Hall at Moda (NEC Birmingham) from the 23rd – 25th February 2020 helping to kickstart the careers of these talented footwear designers.

The History in the Making brief asked students to explore global culture and heritage as far reaching and as obscure as they wish, to develop a range of footwear that interprets the broad spectrum of 'heritage' incorporating fashion influences, materials and colour trends for the Autumn/Winter 2020/21 season.

Lisa Govier, Director of Footwear at Moda says: “We are delighted to continue our collaboration with De Montfort University supporting the local talent and the future designers to the footwear industry. The standards were very high this year, so we decided to go with eight instead of our usual six shortlist of students. Thank you to Sam Hunt, Director of Hunted Brands who joined us on the judging day and helped us decide on the final eight. I can’t wait to see their work on display at Moda and give these incredibly talented designers the opportunity to showcase their work to a global and local audience.”

The eight shortlisted entries explore a host of cultural influences and heritage:

Finn Taberer - The evolution of rock-climbing and free solo climbing legend Alex Honnold.

James Han Park – The atmosphere of Africa and the hand-made twines and sharpened branches or animal bones used in African tribal culture to make the Dinka corset.

Heemin Choi - Tripitaka Koreana - the world’s most comprehensive and oldest intact version of Buddhist canon in Hanja script.

Ellie Gray - Western horse-riding heritage.

Brandon Haley - The cut and folds of Japanese Kimono.

Hyunjee Park - Cleopatra, with the concept of a snake that is related to her life from the beginning to the end of her life.

Swan Hlaing - The antique architecture from Egypt; pyramid, temples and sphinx.

Sesong Ju - The traditional Korean style of house building called ‘Hanok’.

The shortlisted designs will be on display throughout Moda and the winner will be announced on Sunday 23rd at 17:30pm on the Main Stage.

Taking place on the 23rd – 25th February in Halls 6, 7 and 8 at the NEC Birmingham, Moda offers the industry with the ultimate environment for buying, networking, trends, and inspiration. 

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